Friday, October 3, 2008

Endgame Lesson

It's Thursday night at the Marshall, and I'm ready for my weekly cracktion fix. One week I'll go Whole Foods, get Indian food from the hot table, sit upstairs, eat dinner and watch the world go by in Union Square. Another week I'll get a salad or sandwich from Cosi and take to the club and eat in the back room before the round starts. When I'm feeling cheap or on a later train I'll bring a sandwich from home. This week I went for the salad at Cosi and brought it to the club. The usual cast of characters is there. Steve's busy taking entries, Jay's schmoozing with people, Asa's sizing up the competition to see if it's worth his while to enter, kids are playing blitz and various chess teachers are giving lessons.

One teacher has been working with a adult beginner for the last couple of months. She's made a lot of progress from "this is a bishop and it moves diagonally" to basic checkmates, pins, forks, and this week her teacher was working from Silman's "Complete Endgame Course". He was showing positions using a knight against a lone pawn. Since they were sitting next to me I couldn't help but to listen in, watch what he was showing her, and come up with the answers in my head before her. Little did I know how useful this information would be in awhile.

These positions all come from Part Three - Endgames For Class D Minor Piece vs. a lone pawn. The basic premise with a knight is that's it's a short range piece but if it can get in front of the pawn or control the square that the pawn needs to land on the position is a draw. The first example is the knight against a bishop pawn.


The draw is pretty straight forward. In this particular position it doesn't matter whose move it is. If it's White's move 1. Nb4+ Kc4 2. Nc2 Kb3 3. Nd4+ Kb2 4. Kg7 c2 5. Nxc2. In this sequence the knight checks the king and then gets in front of the pawn. It doesn't matter which side the Black king comes in to the knight White has a check.

Take the same position with Black on move. 1... Kc4 2. Na5+ Kb4 3. Nc6+ Kc5 4. Na5 c2 5. Nb3+ Kc4 6. Nc1 Kc3 7. Kg7 Kb2 8.Nd3+ Kc3 9. Nc1. Once again the knight dances around the king with checks or covers the queening square.

An advanced rook pawn gives the knight more trouble because there is only one side to work from. Depending on whose move it is, the pawn may be able to get through.


In this particular position if it's White's move he draws. 1. Nb5 a2 2. Nc3 Kb2 3. Nxa2 Kxa2 1/2 - 1/2

If it's Black's move he wins. 1...a2! (all other moves draw) 2. Nc4 Kb1 3. Na3+ Kc1 0-1

If White's king is closer then it's a draw.

1... Kb1 (1...a2 Kc2!) 2. Nb5 a2 3. Nc3+ Kb2 4. Nxa2 Kxa2 1/2-1/2

In this position black has only one move that gives him any possibilities. 1...a2. (1...Kb2 2. Nc4+ or 1...Ka2 2. Nc4 these lines draw) White still plays 2. Nc4. (2. Nb5?? Kb2 and White can't prevent the promotion.) 2...Kb1 3. Nd2+ Kb2 4. Nb3 1/2 - 1/2)

This is all pretty straight forward but for a beginner it's easy to go wrong by putting the knight on the wrong square and not being able to cover the square the knights going to land on. I found interesting watching the student working out all the different knight moves and telling her teacher why the move works or fails. Listening and watching these exercises proved very beneficial during my first round game.

I played Yevgeni Margulis in round one. He's one of the old Russian guys who frequents the club on a regular basis. He bounces around between 2150 and 2230. I've played him seven times before. Lost six, and nicked him for a draw once. He showed up almost 10 minutes late, but I've learned the hard way that one can not take a large time advantage for granted. I had given most of the time back when he decided it was time eat something and smoke a cigarette outside. So by the time he came back I had 7 minute advantage. We ended out trading off all the major pieces and ended out in this position after 47 moves.

pw-ymending100208.pgn


I was concerned I would not be able to get my king over in time to prevent him from promoting the a pawn after he takes my a pawn. However the Knight vs. Rook Pawn lesson came to mind and I was able to resolve the problems of the position and hold the draw.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice and easy. I wish all endgames were like these examples, I would probably study with much more enthusiasm. Good draw.

Blue Devil Knight said...

Huzzahh!!!

Nice work. I really need to get back onto that endgame book.

Dennis said...

I have been going over the first few chapters in Silman's endgame book for a few weeks now. I think it's great that you were able to use it in practical play!

Glenn Wilson said...

Well done! And an excellent educational post.

Polly said...

The funny this is, the book has been sitting on my bookshelf for months and I hadn't really started looking at it. However when the guy was doing the lesson with the knight versus the lone pawn from the book and I saw how much it helped me in my first round game I decided it was time to look at more.

In that same tournament I won my last round game in a time scramble ending using something from a another game I had lost earlier because I didn't see the move. When I can find that game, and figure out a rough reconstruction of the ending from Thursday's game I'll do a follow up piece.

Maybe there's hope for me as an educational blogger yet. :-) LOL

Anonymous said...

So you got a free lesson you could put in practise directly. Lucky lady! :-)

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Phaedrus said...

It is so rare that one can use a lesson directly afterwards in a game. You must have felt blessed!

I loved it to see that you trusted your best judgment and did not allow yourself to be intimidated by your opponents rating.

Well done Polly! This one can surely be added to your 60 most memorable games.

Polly said...

Phaedrus: Thank you for your kind words. I was very pleased with the game. Whether it's one of my 60 most memorable is subject to debate. When one has played 4000+ games it's hard to decide. However I was genuinely pleased with being able to keep my cool in the time pressure and take what I had picked up from the person's lesson and apply it to this situation.

Chessaholic said...

Nicely done!

Ah yes, endgames. I remember planning to study them. Well, it will happen one of these days.